“The deal offers significant advantages to the clients of both organisations in terms of integration, support and future product development,” explains Simon Udell, Managing Director of TigerTMS, “Together, we now offer the largest single portfolio of Voice and Data Management Solutions for the Hospitality sector and our joint intellectual property and development expertise will allow us to enhance the feature set with new technologies around mobility, web services and in-room infotainment. “
“Our strategic goal is to ensure we have a global presence to support our customers and this acquisition along with the scheduled opening of a new office in Asia will provide the global foot print needed to better serve our clients.” TigerTMS is part of Group Tiger plc.
Founded in 1991 by serial entrepreneur Doug Schwartz, Innovation Technologies Worldwide (ITW) launched InnLine as the first comprehensive voicemail solution for use in hotels and motels. Over the last 21 years, the company has grown to become the US market leader for hospitality voicemail systems as a supplier to leading hotel chains including InterContinental, Hilton, Starwood Hotels and Marriott as well as thousands of smaller independent sites.
“This is a great opportunity all around, for the employees, our customers, the wider hospitality industry and me,” explains ITW CEO Doug Schwartz, who was also majority shareholder prior to the acquisition, “TigerTMS has been an organization that we have partnered with for over ten years and have greatly admired. They have done a fantastic job in Europe, Middle East, and Africa that, in many ways, mirrors our achievements in the Americas. The deal will ensure that our products develop as planned and Innovation will continue to grow with additional staffing, R&D and intellectual property resources.”
“When asked why I’ve decided to sell, my simplest response is: ‘it’s the right time’,” explains Schwartz. “From a deeper perspective, I’ve come to realize that the company needed new stewards to enable it to fulfil its future mission. TigerTMS has the resources and momentum necessary to carry out its next evolution in the global way that I’ve always envisioned. This transaction is very gratifying to me.”
The new focus for Schwartz, whose companies have designed products for the hospitality sector for 30 years, is the launch of a new enterprise - Luminosity Networks, Inc. “Its initial purpose will be to evolve and market a product called ComXchange, which is a next generation, all inclusive, open communication platform for the lodging industry,” announces Schwartz. ComXchange includes IP PBX, messaging, call accounting and an extensive feature list designed for the hospitality industry. Luminosity will deliver the platform as either a cloud based service or on-premise product.
Moving forward, all of the existing ITW products and supporting modules including InnLine Voice Messaging, InnCharge Call Accounting and Hotel MGR Workflow Management software will be supported and developed as expected. TigerTMS has retained all staff at Innovation offices in Cross Plains and will make no changes to the agreements in place with the 150 system integrators and distributors of ITW solutions across the US.
“The deal will also allow us to serve our OEM customers with a wider product portfolio and tighter integration with their respective IP and TDM technologies,” Udell added. TigerTMS has OEM and partnership agreements with leading telephony equipment manufacturers including Alcatel, Avaya, Bittel Electronics, Cisco Systems, Mitel, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung and Siemens.
Commenting on the deal, Ian Bevington, Mitel Propositions Marketing Manager said: "This is good news for the hospitality industry as it enables international communications vendors like Mitel to work seamlessly with TigerTMS to deliver a consistent hospitality solution anywhere in the world."